A New Home
by SkippingSteppingStones
Summary: When Rey's parents attempt to get some money for their daughter, the freeborn son of a slave does not take kindly to it, and instead brings her into his own family. A series of drabbles in which Luke and Mara raise Rey alongside their own son.
1. Chapter 1

Headcanons: Autistic Force Sensitives, Trans Luke

Universe: Legends, but with Rey

Trigger Warnings: Abuse mentions

Pairings: Luke/Mara, Han/Leia

"Mara!"

Mara pushed herself back from her computer, slumping back over the back of her chair for a moment, before giving a great stretch, and standing up.

Luke had exactly two forms of greeting, one of which was shouting like the galaxy was coming to an end, and the other being absolute silence until he had found her. Their relation to the urgency of whatever situation he was in was tangential, at best. And, given she didn't sense any screaming hordes, and had lost track of time as she worked, she wasn't terribly bothered to rush.

"Mara!" he shouted again, and at that, she was more alert. His shouting habit was just something he'd become used to on the farm, easier than finding his family to let them know he was home. He didn't usually shout twice.

And, accompanying the second shout, there was a slight echo of pain.

She headed for the door, and found herself running by the time she reached the hallway. A sense of urgency was growing now, although it didn't seem to be from her husband, and when she reached the door of their apartment, she saw why.

Luke was holding a child.

And she didn't look particularly happy about it.

She was kicking and pushing at him, and unless Mara was much mistaken, she _had_ to be the one who'd blackened one of his eyes.

Luke seemed wholly unconcerned about this. In fact, he immediately passed the bundle of angry child over to Mara, and began taking off his boots as he explained angrily. "Her parents were trying to _sell_ her!"

Mara captured both the girl's hands, and locked her firmly in her grasp, folded over her chest so she couldn't initiate another attack.

"Anyway, I gave them the money they wanted and told them I expected to see them in counselling," Luke said, kicking aside his second boot, and barely missing the boot tray as he looked up, beaming, only to frown when he saw Mara restraining the girl. "Stop that, you're scaring her."

He held out his arms, and Mara allowed him to take the girl back, against her better judgement.

Right out of the gates, he wasn't even trying to hold her fists, and she was back to wailing on him.

"You've been beaten up by a five-year-old," Mara said, exasperated. She loved Luke, but his reasoning could be completely opaque, and as the girl finally closed her teeth on his left arm, Luke finally yelped in distress, and the girl stopped fighting for a moment, her arms and legs hanging limp as she stared at him in surprise.

"She's scared!" Luke answered, recovering quickly.

"Yup," Mara rolled her eyes, "She is terrified of _you_."

Finally, Luke dropped the act of hot defensiveness, adjusting his grip on the limp girl as she showed no interest in straightening, and tucking her back against his chest. "Her parents just tried to sell her. Sort of succeeded, really. I don't mind if she wants to beat on me a bit."

In his arms, the little girl finally gave a sniffle, and he looked down at her, cooing softly to her, like he did for Ben when he was upset.

"And, unless I've misread you entirely, we have a new child?"

Luke looked up from the little girl, a bit pink around the ears. "She needed somewhere to go. We got Ben his big-kid-bed the other day; she can sleep in the old crib tonight, and I'll get her her own tomorrow."

His eyes were pleading, and Mara knew he was rationalizing this as one child he could help, against the hundreds of thousands of new orphans he'd had to leave to other people's (better trained, and more qualified) hands. Instead of solving himself.

But it was one girl, she thought, watching as the child slowly curled her hands in Luke's tunic, sniffling. It was one scared little girl, who could have ended up with anyone. And Luke was far from the worst potential foster parent, already slowly stroking her hair.

"What's her name?" Mara asked. She almost chose to sound sarcastic, but the girl probably didn't need that.

Luke looked down at the girl, gently tipping her head up to face him, "Do you want to tell her?"

The girl gave a tiny shake of her head, before changing her mind, and looking nervously up at Mara.

"Rey."

"I'm Mara," she answered, offering her hand.

Slowly, the little girl reached out, not so much to shake her hand as to just touch fingertips, before withdrawing again into Luke's safe arms. "I know. He said."

Mara nearly chuckled at that mental image. Wherever Luke had been when he'd encountered Rey, he must have immediately lifted her up for easier access to punch his face, and talked to her the entire time, as though nothing was happening.

It hadn't taken a long time of loving Luke to know that loving someone did not mean understanding them.

"Where's Ben?" Luke asked, looking around their living room, as if expecting their son to emerge from behind a couch.

"He's out with Leia," Mara said, finally turning back to the room at large, trying to think of a way to welcome Rey to her new home, and coming up blank.

Luke brushed past her, taking the blanket from the back of their couch, and wrapping Rey in it. The little girl pulled it up over her head, leaning into him despite that she couldn't see him now.

"Where are Rey's things?" she asked. If she was going to be a mother for Rey, she'd probably better get started as soon as possible. She'd probably got off to a bad start restraining her, she reflected.

"Uhh…" Luke paused, his gaze slowly rolling up to the ceiling for a moment, before falling back to his bundle of child, "This is it."

Mara sighed, watching as Luke dropped into the sofa, cradling the little bundle, before coming over and settling next to him, slipping her arm around him, and cautiously touching the little girl's back.

"I can take her to get some things, if you want to take care of your eye."

Rey gave a great sniffle, her shoulders heaving under the blankets as she plastered herself closer to Luke.

He gave her a gentle smile, tucking her closer to his chest, and caressing her shoulder protectively. "I'll come too."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N This may not be as well edited as I'd like, but I got the sweetest review and this's been sitting around on my computer while I had no motivation to finish it. So I did enough, I hope, and I hope you enjoy it!

oO00Oo

Rey snuggled against the Jedi's chest as he relaxed into the sofa. She'd burrowed herself nice and warm into the furry blanket he'd tucked her in, and without the light all around her, she was starting to calm down a bit. She was steady, at least. He was strong, and didn't wobble like her mom and dad did when they held her.

She sucked in her breath, and his hand moved from her back to the top of her head again, stroking her.

Her mom and dad were gone. She was so far away from home, and her spaceports and their _ship_ , and she wanted to go back! She knew they'd left right away with their money, to go somewhere it'd last longer, and she could _feel_ that they were long gone, and not coming back.

"Shh," Luke murmured to her, pausing his conversation with his wife, and bending down so she could just barely glimpse his nose through her blankets. "Shh…"

For a second, she felt like her parents weren't anywhere at all, like they didn't matter, just for a bit, and she tried to cling to the feeling, only for it to subside. Immediately, her breathing faltered again, and she felt close to tears.

Still talking, he folded his arms around her, leaning back, and rocking her gently, and she clung to him.

She couldn't really catch what he was saying, but it didn't matter. It'd been a while since her parents had had any spare blankets lying around to wrap her in, and she felt a bit safer for the two sober voices overhead.

There was a little tug on her mind, and she looked up, daring to push her blanket aside so she could see Luke's face.

"We need to get you some clothes," he told her, gently brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "Do you think you can come with Mara and I?"

Rey blinked for a second, pressing her face against him and waiting for him to decide for her. Her dad never gave her a choice, because if her parents were out, she might've messed something up on the ship.

"Rey?"

She looked back up at him, her eyes having drifted away from his. She sort of wanted to sleep, but she didn't want to be alone, because she didn't know anything _about_ this place. Going with him probably wouldn't be awful, she thought, reaching for his hand.

He let her take it, and she pressed her fingers against his palm, distracting herself from his expectant face as she nodded.

"Alright," he said, looking away from her again, and covering her with her blanket, "We're ready to go."

She groaned as he shifted, and stood, but he didn't unwrap her blanket. Instead, he folded it tightly around her, and carried her down to the speeder.

"Sit up, sweetie."

Rey didn't want to sit up.

She wanted to nap.

"Come on," he said, and she couldn't hold back a smile as she flopped over his hands. "Mara? A little help?"

The lady put her hands under Rey's arms, and propped her back into the seat, and Luke scrambled to fasten a safety belt around Rey's waist, before his wife lowered her back into the seat.

"You're sure now is a good time?" Mara asked, and Rey bristled at how uncertain she sounded.

Yes, she was ready! She hadn't been sure before, but now she _knew_ that she wanted to go get some clothes with the weird Jedi!

She sat up straighter, looking up angrily at her. She wanted to have fun and get new clothes and maybe some toys! If they were gonna insist she was _theirs_ , they were gonna have to give her some stuff to make it worth it!

"I think she's ready," Luke said, nodding slightly.

Mara watched Rey, looking a bit less unimpressed, and as she turned to take the driver's seat, she even reached over, and gave Rey's hair a ruffle.

As the speeder started, Rey sat up all the way, wrapping her arms around herself so her blanket wouldn't slip as she looked around at the city.

When she'd been here before with her family, they'd mostly seen the lower levels. Up here, it looked so weird, and huge, and cavernous. The light hurt her eyes, and things moved too fast. This was where the rich people lived, she knew. These people wouldn't have had to sell their daughter just 'cause they wanted something to drink.

Again, she felt like her parents were farther away, and less important, and she looked back over at Luke to find him half-turned in his seat, watching her worriedly.

"Are you alright?"

She looked down, fiddling with her blankets for a second.

"I want my mommy."

He made a soft sound, and Rey felt a little bit safer again as something brushed against her mind.

The back seat didn't seem as nice anymore.

She unclasped her safety belt, and scrambled into the front seat, to general sounds of dismay. She ignored them. They were Jedi, they could drive just fine! Her mom had told her that they could do _anything_ , and as soon as she was comfortably settled on his lap, the sounds shut up, and she pressed her face to him.

He smelled a little bit like her parents. No alcohol, but a little bit of oil, and metallic tang.

"I gave them my com," he promised, wrapping her tightly in his arms. She knew he was worried about her going flying without her safety belt, and wrapped her arms around his. "I'll contact them sometimes, and you can speak to them if you want."

"Can we go visit?"

He paused for a moment, before she felt him brushing against her mind again. She was pretty sure that was him. It felt nice and gentle, but a little weird.

"Of course. We'll see them as soon as possible."

Rey felt a new prickle, and looked up. That'd gotta be Mara, she thought, finally daring to stare at the woman. She looked angry, her red hair only making it look more like she was on fire. Rey didn't know if she'd ever seen anyone with red hair before, she thought, leaning against Luke as she watched the woman's face. She'd seen people with lots of colours that weren't their original ones, but she could sorta feel that Mara's hair was red, the same way her mom never looked different no matter how much make-up she put on.

Rey could just tell what people looked like.

And who they were.

Mara sort of scared her. Rey knew somehow that she'd done really bad things, much much worse than her mom and dad, and she sort of wondered why Luke'd brought her to her. He'd said they were married, but he didn't have the same feeling of darkness about him.

There was something between them, though, and Rey closed her eyes to see it better. It was weird, she'd never been able to see _this much_ about people before.

There was something between them, like a cable, flowing with their thoughts about each other, and she reached out to poke it curiously.

"She's Force sensitive."

Mara sounded surprised, and Rey opened her eyes back up, worried she hadn't been supposed to touch that.

"Uh, yeah," Luke said absently, and Rey ducked away as he tried to pet her hair again. "I guess."

"That didn't seem _important_ to you?" Mara asked, and Rey watched nervously, expecting her to get angry, only for her to laugh, and give her husband a push.

"Not as important as that she needed help!"

Mara turned the speeder into a parking unit, and stopped it, before turning to look specifically at Rey, like she was trying to see something more than her jumpsuit and buns, and Rey took a deep breath, and stared back.

She was surprised when Mara smiled at her. "Maybe I can get used to her, after all."

Rey jumped as the Jedi reached out to her, and touched her mind, more directly than Luke had. She felt like Mara was looking at her memories, and it spooked her a bit. But… maybe she wanted someone to share them with.

She reached for Mara's hands, and as she took them, Rey remembered her parents, as well as she could, and remembered their ship around them. Luke was giving her lots of space, but maybe Mara would hold her memories with her.

Mara's mind twined with hers, and Rey felt like she was making a promise. Then, slowly, she saw another room. It was little, and dark, and sparse, and she didn't know what to make of it. Then, she knew, suddenly. It was Mara's room, but not the one she had with Luke. It must've been from a long time ago, Rey thought.

Her parents weren't there, but Rey knew it was where Mara had grown up.

Fascinated, she crawled forwards, Luke letting her go as she climbed into Mara's arms, and allowed herself to be lifted.

She was looking around the little space in her mind. It still felt rich, she thought, even as she knew Mara was walking. She'd probably want her to come out, and look at clothes, soon, but for now…

Where were her parents?

 _They were gone._ It was Mara's voice. She'd only sort of listened to her talk until now, but she _knew_ that was her voice.

 _Gone where?_ Rey asked.

 _I don't know. I don't remember them at all_.

Rey was going to ask more about that, but suddenly, she found her feet on the ground, and nearly stumbled, only to be supported by Mara's hands in hers. Confused, she looked up at her. She'd been close to learning something about her! But she sort of looked like she didn't want that, and Rey obediently released one of her hands, holding onto just one as they led her around.

At first, Rey had fun running around with them, finding anything she liked, no matter how silly or visible or expensive and getting to try it, and even get it if she wanted. And when they were each weighed down with a bag, even getting her a littler one to carry her toys in, she started to get tired.

It'd been a really long day, she thought, stumbling sleepily into Luke's leg as she tried closing her eyes, and just following his hand in hers. She didn't know how long she'd been awake, or how far she'd gone, and she was wearing a nice, warm new jacket. She had a toy, and Luke'd promised to call her mom with her tomorrow.

"Hold on tight," he told her, and Rey yawned, and tightened her grip on his hand. Suddenly, he pulled, and she yelped as he tugged her into his arms, and settled her on his hip, kissing her forehead as she giggled.

"Again!" she giggled, but the word slurred slightly with her sleepiness, as she pressed herself into his shoulder.

"Tomorrow," he promised, pulling a poncho out of one of the bags, and folding it around her. "We're just going to pick up your brother."

She almost complained about him not being her brother, but relaxed farther against him, instead.

"And tomorrow, I'll have someone else cover my classes, and we can play together all day," he promised. She felt him messing with her bag, and tried briefly to hold it tighter. It slipped from her fingers, though, and she almost cried at losing it, before he was folding a soft toy against her chest.

"It's alright, Rey," he told her, "I won't let you fall."


End file.
